How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout the project i have used many different media technologies to help with the work, one website which i have used for the duration of the project is Blogger, an online blogging site on which i've uploaded all my completed media work. this method is a lot more effective than having hard copies of my work as it is stored online and one place so it is easy to find my work and to see how much of the project i have completed. Also the ability to upload different medias such as videos, images and text makes it so useful as project blogging site.

Another site that i used frequently, especially in the research and planning stage is YouTube, a site which allowed me to research multiple different TV adverts and sponsorship sequences and also put them on my blog to analysis. This made the research and planning stage a lot easier as it was easy to find existing media examples such as the Nike and Adidas commercials, these gave us the main inspiration for our advert and also sponsorship sequence.

Programmes on the Macs used in the project were really helpful too, such as Word, Excel and Final Cut amongst others. Word, as well as Google Docs made it easy for me to type out documents and easily save them whereas typing straight into Blogger can be risky as it doesn’t auto save. From there it was easy to copy over text into my Blog and have it. Excel came in handy when it came to feedback as we easily type up questionnaire answers and turn them into visual representations such as graphs and charts.

Final Cut was used to edit all four of our tasks including the two adverts, sponsorship sequence and radio advert. When using Final Cut it was difficult at first to completely understand and use fluently but after a while of using it, it became second nature. Early problems that developed were the issue of rendering, which had to be done after you made any change, this made the editing process quite long and monotonous.

Generally the programme was good to use and definitely helped with my project. The various effects that came with the programme were very helpful, such as the fade in and outs as well as slow motion and also the ability to add text really easily, these combined to make the process fairly straight forward and gave me the ability to create a professional looking advert.

A key piece of hardware used was a Nikon DSLR, which we used to shot all our footage. Traditionally a handheld camera, but it recording abilities where just as good and enabled us to record in high definition quality, again making our advert look more professional. The compact size of the DSLR made it very easy to maneuver, to achieve a variety of shots and angles without to much effort. Furthermore, the camera’s easily usable features such as the focus changer, made it easy to achieve more ambitious and professional shots such as focus pulls.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

We purposely attempted to connect our different tasks to create a realistic feel brand identity. At the beginning of the project, w felt brand identity was a massive issue when it comes to the believability of the adverts so we came up with a brand name, logo, font design and also a colour scheme of orange and grey/black. These components came together in our different tasks to create a whole identity that would stand with one another. Therefor I feel our texts have combined really effectively and make the project look a lot more professional.

 As well as the similarities, the tasks have a lot of differences to separate them to fulfil their purpose. In comparison to the radio advert, the TV adverts have very little dialogue, they are faster paced and are more cinematic, engaging the audience more and advertising the company. The radio ad uses dialogue to communicate our company effectively, a completely different media, which made for a lot of obvious changes, such as speed and content. The advert is quite a lot slower paced than the adverts so that the information is clear, although in comparison to other radio ads it is fairly quick, creating a sense of speed which links to our company. Our sponsorship sequence differs from the other texts also, combining a visual montage with some audio dialogue as well. The montage uses shots from the TV advert, combining both tasks, and also makes the sequence more recognisable to an audience.  The montage used in the sponsorship ad was made slower through editing with longer takes, to get the product across effectively in a short period of time, this makes it different from the TV ad and a more effective sponsorship sequence.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I would say our media products use the conventions of real media texts in multiple ways. Firstly, in our adverts the format is consistent with existing examples as they start with the advertising footage, which then peaks and ends with the company name and identity, our advert follows this strongly and works effectively as the audience are familiar with it.

When it comes to the niche market of sports attire, we followed the few conventions set by existing companies that we had researched. Generally we kept the ads fast paced, which related to sports and would appeal to our young adult market. Other conventions used from various sports-related commercial include the use of product in action, in competition, and improving an athletes performance, we achieved this throughout by attaining brand colours of orange and black, making it clear to the audience the athletes’ are wearing TGR attire, this product placement added to the effectiveness of the adverts and helped sell the product. 

Another large aspect of the commercial was the use of a montage, this is convention often used in a sports commercial and one that we felt would be great for our advert, the slow pace that gradually increases through the commercial is a key convention of sport montages and works extremely well in our two adverts, one uses this convention a lot more as the change of pace is a lot more significant. 

The sponsorship sequence is also very consistent with existing ones also, the short advert followed by speech explaining that the company sponsors the following programme, again I feel this method was extremely successful as it makes the product look more official and believable. Much like the advert, we used a small montage to show and advertise our product, this method is used less in sponsorship sequences and therefor challenges the conventions existing products. This therefor makes the product stand out from existing examples and also intrigues the audience to find out more about the products.

Audience Feedback

Questionnaire


1. How would you rate each of our constructions out of 10?

Advert 1                                                                                                                                 

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Advert 2

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Radio Advert

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Sponsorship Sequence

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

2. Name one strength and one weakness of our main TV adverts.

S –

W –

 3. Do you find the two main TV adverts motivational?

Yes        No

4. Do you think the two main TV adverts appeal to a wide audience, of both competitive sports people as well as amateurs?

 Yes      No

5. Do you think the main TV adverts appeal to an audience of a younger generation?

Yes       No

6. Do you think we have succeeded in appealing to both males and females in this advert?

Yes        No

7. Do you think the radio advert and sponsorship sequence successfully link to the main TV adverts?

Yes       No

8. Do you think the radio advert and sponsorship sequence also appeal to an audience of a younger generation? 

Yes       No

9. Name one strength and one weakness of our radio advert.

S - 

W -

10. Name one strength and one weakness of our sponsorship sequence? 

S - 

W - 

Results

Garageband

 

After getting permission from the record label to use this song, Katie and I started to edit it using the software 'Garageband.' It is a 6.44 minute long song, meaning that for our 1 minute (maximum) advert, this was going to be way too long. So, we decided that we wanted to use primarily the slow introduction to accompany our quote at the beginning, and then go into the faster pace music, which would accompany the fast pace, more physical footage. 

In order to cut the song, we had to import the entire length into Garageband, so we could identify the bits we wanted. Then, we used 'Command T' to cut out parts of the song we did and didn't want, and started to place parts together to see if they sounded right. We also experimented with overlapping of different parts, to make the transition between different parts of the song more subtle. 

We duplicated our layers, too, as this would make it easier to identify different parts of the song and see how they all fitted together. This also allowed us to alter the volume of different parts. So, for example, if we had an overlap, we could turn one part down to make a more subtle transition successful. 

Our next plan is to record a motivational quote to go at the beginning of our advert, to add to the motivational tone. This quote is:

"Remember this, success has been and continues to be defined as getting up one more time than you've been knocked down."

We're have two speakers in mind who we want to speak this quote, and once we have recorded this we intend to play it over our music, ready for our advert. 

Radio Advert Analysis

Air Lingus Radio Advert Analysis 



In the advert they use an irish narrator to instantly inform the audience that the company is to do with Ireland, this could also intrigue the audience because stereotypically radio ads use southern english accents that speak standard english. The ad promotes the tourism of Ireland, describing different attractions, the narrator speaks in a high pitched, up beat voice to attract the listener and make it more appealing but also the speed of speech is slightly slower than other adverts, so the audience can take the information as it is the main part of the ad. 

Radio Advert Analysis

Ocado Radio Advert Analysis



In the radio ad Ocado use a small song about the 'ocado man', this tuneful song is really effective in a radio advert as you can not use imagery so the song makes the ad more entertaining and attracts the audience. Also the song is quite catchy and therefore will be stuck in some peoples heads and get them thinking about the company. Another good aspect of the song is that it is quite upbeat which gives a good impression of the company, that they are friendly and helpful.

After the song, in a normal voice, they provide the listener with more information on the company as generally songs are not very good a communicating information. The speech is quick and clear so it is easily understandable but still keeps the audience interested.